This invention relates to a method of teaching an operation to an industrial robot, and more particularly to an off-line teaching method for an industrial robot in which teaching is conducted not to a robot in the actual operating line but to a master robot placed off the line and the operation program thereby prepared is utilized as such for the robot in the line.
Conventionally, in the playback system industrial robots, instruction as to the desired operation, namely teaching, is conducted either by a remote teaching method using a teaching pendant or a joy stick, or by a direct teaching method in which the arms of a robot are actually held for the teaching thereof. These methods are the same in that the operations are taught to robots used in the actual operating line, so that the normal operation of the robots must be interrputed for teaching. This system may not cause a problem when the robots are first installed in the line, but when work is to be changed it imposes a heavy burden on the teaching operation especially under the pressure of time. For instance, when new work is to be processed during the next month in place of the present work, it is sometimes necessary to set aside at the end of the previous month an entire night for teaching the robot.